Independent participatory media for Iran

Iran’s Department of the Environment has made a list of 3,100 industrial polluters across the country with most of them found respectively in Isfahan, Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces.

Industrial polluters are required to pay one percent of their income to the government as a form of damage tax, according to the report.
ISNA reports that the head of National Environmental Monitoring, Shina Ansar, said the tax has been factored into the administration’s current budget and is being collected on a trial basis.

The industries have an incentive to remove themselves from the polluters list by improving their emissions and waste management, which would exempt them from from paying the tax.

Air pollution is a serious problem in most large cities in Iran. In its most recent effort to improve air quality, the Department of the Environment has banned gasoline produced by petrochemical facilities.